Pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil calls on God to ‘hold Israel accountable’ during left-wing Yom Kippur event

“It’s tough to repent at a time when our tuition fees, our tax dollars, our votes are being used to kill, to maim, to displace Palestinians,” said Khalil, a green card holder who is still locked in a legal battle over his attempted deportation by the Trump administration.

He then prayed that God would “remember that Israel is committing genocide”.

Khalil also spoke about what he described as the need for unity in opposition to Israel’s actions.

He argued that the “Zionist project” and “this particular fascist government in this country” were seeking to make people forget “that we are all one, that we are all humans”.

Khalil concluded his speech with a series of calls for an end to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

He called for an end to the bombing of Gaza, “the engineered famine”, and “this country’s money paying for it”.

He also called for an end to “the lie any of it was inevitable”.

“May God, through us all, all of us, hold Israel accountable,” he said.

Khalil, a Columbia University graduate, has become a prominent figure in the US pro-Palestinian movement.

He was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025 following his involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University and has been fighting deportation proceedings.

His detention and subsequent legal battle have made him a prominent figure in debates in the United States over the government's response to pro-Palestinian activism on university campuses.

Those attending the event also included Jewish Democratic Congressional candidate Brad Lander, Palestinian-American Democratic Senate nominee Aber Kawas and several New York City Council members.

Delivering his speech from a podium bearing the message “for the sin of genocide we atone,” Lander said: “I want to speak to my fellow liberal and progressive Zionists about the repentance that we must do today…

“My confession must centre on my, on our complicity in what I view as genocide in Gaza.

“I understand the hesitation of some to call it genocide, I understand and share fears of rising antisemitism, and I understand, even though I don’t share it, the feeling of antagonism some have to those who reject the vision of a Jewish state.

“But what I don’t understand is this: For those Jews who share that connection to Israel, when we confess our collective transgressions today before God, how can you not join me in seeing the wanton destruction of Gaza, the famine exacerbated by lack of aid, the land thefts and murders in the West Bank, at the centre of our shared transgressions?”